In an endeavor to reach population in deeper pockets, the regulatory authority, Reserve Bank of India has asked the regional ombudsman heads to get themselves involved in the district and village level committees on regular basis.

The move is a part of efforts made by the regulator to stimulate the banking ombudsman scheme in small and far-off regions. The banking ombudsman aims at resolving customer grievances related to banking services. So far, the scheme came to the advantage of only urban population, as also indicated by V Vasanthan, the head of banking ombudsman, West Bengal and Sikkim region- ‘most complaints his office received in 2008-09 were from urban bank customers.'

Presently, there are only 15 banking ombudsman offices dotted across the country. Though there are no plans of increasing this number, the regulator bank has already stipulated that all grievances must be addressed fortnightly. It has been also stated that the bank must resolve these grievances within a month's time.

The bank also widened the ombudsman scheme to consider internet banking complaints, besides complaints for non-adherence to banking codes and standards. The ombudsman also mentions that the bank is liable to pay a penalty up to Rs 1 lakh, in case of customer harassment.

In 2008-09, the central bank disposed of over 3,000 complaints, which exceeds the number of complaints it resolved in the preceding year.